A federal judge in Mobile, Ala., has ruled that an environmental group can continue to pursue a lawsuit claiming the government violated environmental policies in approving oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico after the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

View full sizeGerald Herbert, The Associated PressThe lawsuit claims several government agencies violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act with the approval of 221 oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. This oil rig and supply vessel were photographed in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana on April 10.

The environmental group maintains that leases were approved without any environmental review that considered the impact of the Deepwater Horizon blowout and the oil spill.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed the suit on behalf of the group Defenders of Wildlife. The lawsuit claimed several government agencies, including the Department of Interior, violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act with the approval of 221 oil drilling leases in the Gulf of Mexico following the oil spill.

U.S. District Judge William Steele in Mobile on Monday ruled the environmental group can continue to pursue its claims.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Interior did not have any immediate comment on the judge's ruling. The government had asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, saying the environmental group did not state a valid claim.

Derb Carter, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said the government continued to approve leases after the blowout and oil spill even though circumstances had changed significantly.

"Our view is that all the assumptions ... were rendered wrong after the BP blowout," Carter said.

The lawsuit continues before Steele, who gave attorneys until June 6 to file additional briefs in the case.